It was my Junior year of high school. I want to say it was a Saturday. Yes, we will go with Saturday. I was at my house playing video games as I normally did. Call of Duty, Halo, you get the
idea; I was a nerd. I'm sitting there and decided "Hey, I'm going to see if Laura wants to hang out." Laura was a girl that I have had a slight crush on for a while. We had spent time together at
the local arcade one time, but other than that, we have had no interaction outside of school. I man up and ask her via Facebook if she wants to hang out for a while. I can remember eagerly and
nervously awaiting her reply. It felt like hours!

Ding... I hear my computer sound. Laura agreed to hang out with me! I can remember being especially excited because this would be the first time a girl would be coming over to my house. I was very
reserved in school. I usually would never think of asking someone I like to come to my house, but this day I was feeling gutsy. Little did I know, a curveball would be thrown at me.

"I'll be there later" Laura says.

I was like "Eh..." My reaction was such because "Later" can mean 30 minutes or all day! I reassured myself though "Ok, ok this will give me time to clean my room, organize, and get all these
damn pop cans outta here!" I wanted to do everything I could to make a good impression on her. After about an hour or so of room maintenance, I hear a car pull up. "Damn, is she already
here?" I take a peek out of my window and right as I do I hear a knock on my door.

"Aaron's here" my mom says to me.

"Fuck" was the first word that came to mind. Aaron is my best friend and I love him dearly, but come on man, not today!

"Hey, how's it goin?" Aaron asks me as we walk into the cave that is my room.

I am trying to play it off like I'm not pissed or annoyed. "Oh, not much man, Laura's coming over later."

"Oh yeah... how'd you manage that?"

"I just asked" We both start laughing. I don't remember exactly what we did while waiting on her to show up, but I do know that Aaron did not hang out with us once Laura got to my house. I forced
him to hang out with my parents. That didn't last too long though.

A few hours pass and it is now roughly 4 PM. I hear a car pull up. A small black car is pulling into my drive. "Hell yeah" I thought to myself. "She actually showed up." I'm like a little kid in a
candy store. I don't expect anything special to happen (kissing and that kind of stuff) I was just surprised to see her here! "Get out" I playfully suggest to Aaron. He follows my command
without question. He understands that it's a big deal for me; so I thought.

"Hey Laura, how's it goin?" I ask her hesitantly. Nerves were a factor for me the first few minutes she was there.

"Whose car is that out there?"

"Oh, that's Aaron's, he kinda just showed up." "So whaddya wanna do?"

"Do you have Skyrim?" she asks me.

"Sure do."

I proceed to place Skyrim in my Xbox 360 and load it up. Skipping the boring tutorial and whatnot, we end up in a cave full of spider webs. This intense fear forms in Laura's eyes, her voice begins
to tremble "There's spiders in this game?"

I start laughing "Yeah... you don't like spiders?" Being the asshole that I am, I look for the biggest spider in the game and get close as I can to it! Needless to say, she was not a
fan of this.

Skyrim was going to slow for us, so we decided to go outside and walk my trail. My trail is about 200 yards away from my house. I owned a very wooded area at this house. We could go outside and
enjoy nature anytime we wanted. It was very beautiful. The trail itself is designed well. It has rocks along the side to mark it. She was enjoying herself to this point. "Oh wow, I love it out
here" she said. I could not help myself. I started to smile. I was very happy she was having a good time. There was a particular spot I was looking for. If you venture on down the hill towards the
little "pond" there are two long rocks under an oak tree. This was my favorite spot to sit. It was our "smoking rock." Aaron and I dubbed it this name because we would go this particular area and
sit to smoke our cigarettes.

So we're sitting there for a good 10-15 minutes just talking about school, music, games, whatever came to mind; then we hear the leaves rustling. I look around. It can't be the trees because it's
completely still right now, no wind to be felt. I heard footsteps. It dawned on me. Aaron. I'm having a mental battle right now trying to remain calm. By calm, I don't mean I am getting angry. You
know how it is among friends. They'll tease ya and try to embarrass you. This is what I was not looking forward to. Aaron walks up and is acting quite casual. He has a cigarette in his hand.
As soon as I see the cigarette, I think "Oh my god... really?" I had this weird thing back then about smoking in front of a girl. I didn't want her to think I was gross. "Don't ask me mother
fucker, don't ask me" I repeat to myself.

"Hey... you wanna drag?" Aaron asks me.

I give a very curt reply of "No."

"Are ya sure?"

"Yes." I say, trying to get him to leave us alone.

He keeps pestering me with his voice "It's a pretty good cigarette!" He would keep making his statements longer for every answer I gave him. It was really killing the vibe. This
bullshit went on for an unnecessary amount of time.

"I do not want a cigarette Aaron." ended up being the answer that finally shut him up!

He then surrendered and said "Well ok, I'm gonna go back to the house."

Laura was kind of confused. "I take it you smoke?" I knew I was screwed here. If I said no, I'd be lying. If I said yes, she'd be turned off by that.

"Yeah, not all the time though" is the answer I settled with.

"Oh..." she says in clear disappointment. I could see her facial expression. The mood and my chances had completely died thanks to that cigarette.